West seemed uninterested in the threat. “Are you planning some kind of meal?”
Temple clutched Lavender to him, disliking the implication that she might become dinner. “No. I’m—holding her for someone.”
West tilted his head. “Holding her.”
Temple shook his head. “Forget about the damn pig. You haven’t seen Mara.”
“I haven’t.”
“If you do—”
West raised his brows. “I assure you, all of London will know when I’ve had a chance to speak with the woman.”
Temple scowled again. “You won’t make a mockery of her.”
“To be fair, she did destroy your life. She might deserve to have a mockery made of her. The illustrators are already working on the retelling of last night.”
Temple leaned across the desk, fury coursing through him. “You. Will. Not. Make. A. Mockery. Of. Her.”
West watched him for a long moment, then said, “I see.”
Temple did not care for the words. “What do you see?”
“You care for the girl.”
It was not every day Temple was laid bare. By a member of the media. “Of course I care for her. I’m going to marry her.”
West waved one hand in the air. “No one gives a fig about marriage. Throw a stone in London and hit someone unhappily matched. The point is that you care for the girl.”
Temple looked down at Lavender, sleeping in his arms. The only creature on earth who was not annoying him right now.
“Christ. Unfellable, unbeatable Temple. Felled. Beaten. By a woman.”
He met the newspaperman’s gaze, putting all of his darkness into the look. “If she comes here, you send for me. Immediately.”
“Am I to keep the woman locked up until you arrive?”
“If that’s what it takes.”
She was alone with no resources on the streets of London. And he wanted her safe. He wanted her with him. And he would not rest until he found her. He turned on his heel to leave the room.
“I’ll do it, on one condition.”
He should have expected it, of course. Should have known that West would have his own half of the bargain. He turned back. Waited for it.
“Tell me why she is so important. After all, she’s already restored your name. The world believes her alive. I found half a dozen women in that ballroom last night who recognized her. She’s older, but still just as beautiful. And everyone remembers those eyes.”
Irrational fury coursed through him at the mention of Mara’s eyes. He didn’t want people noticing them. He didn’t want them thinking about them. They were not for all to look at. They were for him. He was the only one who had looked into them and seen more than their strange, mismatched color. He had looked into them and seen her.
West pressed on. “Why do you care if she stays or goes?”
He met West’s gaze. “One day, the woman you love will slip through your fingers, and I shall ask you the same question.”
He exited the room, leaving West to consider the implications of the statement.
The newspaperman waited long minutes, listening for the exterior door to close, marking Temple’s departure, before he turned to the window and watched as the Killer Duke mounted his horse and tore off to his next destination—in search of his love.
Only once the clatter of hooves faded away, he spoke to the empty room. “You may come out now.”
A small closet door opened, and Mara stepped into the room, cheeks stained with tears. “He is gone?”
“He is searching for you.”
She nodded, staring down at her feet, sadness like nothing she’d ever felt before coursing through her. Desire like nothing she’d felt before. He loved her. He’d said it. He’d come looking for her, and he’d confessed his love for her.
“He will find you.”
She looked up at that. “Perhaps not.”
Even as the words left her mouth, she heard the echo of Temple’s promises. If you run, I will find you.
West shook his head. “He will find you, because he will not stop looking until he does.”
“He might,” she said, hoping it was true. Hoping he might decide she was not worth the trouble. Hoping he might find another life. Another woman. Someone worthy of him.
West smiled at that. “You think a man simply gives up searching for the woman he loves?”
The woman he loves. Tears came at the words, hot and stinging, and she couldn’t hold them back. He loved her.
“Here is the part that I do not understand,” West said, more to himself than to her, she thought. “You love him, as well.”
She nodded at that. “Quite desperately.”
“So what is the problem?”
She couldn’t help it. She laughed. “What is the problem? It’s all a problem. I ruined him. I destroyed everything that was supposed to be his. I stole his life. He deserves an aristocratic wife and perfect little children and a legacy that is not tarnished by me.”